Powell-Weinberger & COIN/Stability & Reconstruction Ops

[TROUFION]

"Essentially, the Doctrine expresses that military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged." -PBS, NEWSHOUR
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"Powell based this strategy for warfare in part on the views held by his former boss in the Reagan administration, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and also on his own experience as a major in Vietnam." -PBS, NEWSHOUR

The time to relook the validity of the P-W Doctrine is now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with "overwhelming and disproportionate force" and "support from the public" or for that matter "a clear exit strategy." The question to ask is what constitutes overwhleming force, support and exit strategy in COIN and Stability and Reconstruction Operations?

If the goal is to establish a Sustainable Peace, which I define as: the decisive turning point where the target state is capable of providing its own security, maintaining the rule of law, and exercising a free and independent democratic government without extensive external military and civilian support (from NPGS Thesis: Progressive Reconstruction, p.7). Then we can claim the establishment of it as the moment to exit. To get to the exit point we (following P-W) should apply all our effort (overwhelming and disproportionate) across the spectrum to achieve that goal.

There is nothing wrong with applying the P-W doctrine to these type operations. It is a valid and proven doctrine and is better than that which we apply today.

-T

Several Powell-Weinberger Doctrine sites for review:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Doctrine

http://www.afa.org/magazine/Aug1999/0899powell.asp

A lesson Plan :
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/te...ldoctrine.html

Progressive Reconstruction: a Methodology for Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations. http://theses.nps.navy.mil/06Sep_Rohr.pdf